Mary Steenburgen
| birth_place = Newport, Arkansas, U.S. | residence = Los Angeles, California, U.S. Chilmark, Massachusetts, U.S.Ted Danson & Mary Steenburgen's House in Chilmark, MA (Google Maps) - Virtual Globetrotting Retrieved May 7, 2017. | alma_mater = Hendrix College | occupation = | years_active = 1978–present | awards = Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress: Melvin and Howard (1980) Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Melvin and Howard (1980) | spouse = | }} | children = 2, including Charlie McDowell }} Mary Nell Steenburgen (born February 8, 1953) is an American actress and singer. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's 1980 film Melvin and Howard. Steenburgen, who studied at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse in the 1970s, also received a Golden Globe nomination for the 1981 film Ragtime, a BAFTA TV Award nomination for the 1985 miniseries Tender Is the Night and an Emmy Award nomination for the 1988 TV film The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank. Her other film appearances include Cross Creek (1983), Parenthood (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990), Philadelphia (1993), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Elf (2003), The Brave One (2007), Step Brothers (2008), The Proposal (2009), and The Help (2011). Early life Steenburgen was born in Newport, Arkansas, to Nellie Mae (née Wall; 1923–2010),https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/JBF4-S5Q August 16, 2014 a school-board secretary, and Maurice Hoffman Steenburgen (1914–1989), a freight-train conductor who worked at the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Stated on Finding Your Roots, October 17, 2017 She has a sister, Nancy (Steenburgen) Kelly, a teacher.http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/mary-steenburgen/bio/165140 August 16, 2014 Her ancestry includes Dutch,Mary Steenburgen [1953]. New Netherland Institute. Retrieved October 13, 2017 English, Scottish, and Welsh. In 1971, she enrolled at Hendrix College to study drama. She subsequently traveled to Dallas at the suggestion of her drama teacher where she successfully auditioned for New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse. Career Early career Steenburgen moved to Manhattan in 1972 after being selected by the Neighborhood Playhouse to study acting. She worked as a server at The Magic Pan and for Doubleday while studying under Will Esper. Film career Steenburgen's break came when she was discovered by Jack Nicholson in the reception room of Paramount's New York office, and was cast as the female lead in his second directorial work, the 1978 Western Goin' South.[http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/mary-steenburgen/bio/165140 Mary Steenburgen: Biography]. TV Guide.com. Steenburgen had a leading role in the 1979 film Time After Time as a modern woman who falls in love with author H. G. Wells, played by her future first husband, Malcolm McDowell. In her third film, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1980 film Melvin and Howard, playing Lynda Dummar, the wife of Melvin Dummar, then a trucker and aspiring singer, who claimed to have befriended reclusive eccentric Howard Hughes. Another notable film appearance came in the well-received 1983 film Cross Creek, in which she played Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of The Yearling. In 1985, she also starred in the movie One Magic Christmas as a mother and wife who falls on devastating times at Christmas only to rely on a Christmas miracle to save her family. In 1989 she played Karen Buckman, the wife of Steve Martin's character in Parenthood. In Back to the Future Part III (1990), Steenburgen played Clara Clayton, a school teacher who falls in love with Doc Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd. She was persuaded to play the role by her children, as well as by fans of the Back to the Future films, and reprised the role by providing the character's voice in Back to the Future: The Animated Series. Other performances have been: in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), as a woman who is having an affair with the title character (played by Johnny Depp); My Summer Story (1994), as the mother of Ralphie Parker (the sequel to A Christmas Story); the role of Hannah Nixon in the Oliver Stone biopic, Nixon (1995); and in the Will Ferrell 2003 comedy Elf, as a woman who discovers that her husband is the father of one of Santa's elves. She has appeared in the comedy films Step Brothers (2008), starring Will Ferrell, playing the mother of Ferrell's character; Four Christmases (2008) opposite Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon; and The Proposal (2009) opposite Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. Dirty Girl, which features Steenburgen along with Juno Temple, Milla Jovovich and William H. Macy, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2010. She also appeared in the critically acclaimed film The Help (2011), starring alongside Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Bryce Dallas Howard, and had a featured role as a lounge singer, who is the romantic interest in a love triangle, in the 2013 comedy Last Vegas. She had a small part in the 2015 film A Walk in the Woods as Jeannie. In 2018, Steenburgen starred opposite Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, and Candice Bergen in the romantic comedy film Book Club. Television career In television, Steenburgen appeared as Kate Montgomery in Ink (1996) with her husband, Ted Danson, and co-starred with Danson as Mary Gulliver in Gulliver's Travels (1996). She has a recurring role as herself with Danson in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Steenburgen co-starred as Helen Girardi, the mother of Amber Tamblyn's title character in Joan of Arcadia. In 2011, she had a recurring role as Josephine in the HBO sitcom Bored to Death with Danson again. Steenburgen starred as Anastasia Lee in the 2011 FX pilot, Outlaw Country, but it was passed by the network. She finally appeared on FX in the dark sitcom Wilfred from 2011 through 2013 as Catherine Newman, the title character's eccentric and mentally ill mother. Steenburgen had a recurring role on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock from 2012 to 2013 where she played Diana Jessup. In 2014, she began a recurring role as former Dixie Mafia boss Katherine Hale in the fifth and sixth seasons of Justified. From 2015 to 2018, she starred as Gail Klosterman on the comedy series The Last Man on Earth. Music career In 2007, Steenburgen underwent minor surgery on her arm, which required a general anesthetic; shortly thereafter, she began experiencing "music (...) playing in her head day and night". She subsequently took music lessons so that she could write down what she was hearing, and by 2013 had almost 50 songwriting credits. She has collaborated with musicians from Nashville and was also signed to Universal Music as a songwriter. In Last Vegas, Steenburgen plays a lounge singer and even performs one of her original compositions on screen. In 2018, her composition "Glasgow (No Place Like Home)" as performed by Jessie Buckley featured as the climactic musical moment in the film Wild Rose. Personal life In 1978, Steenburgen met and began dating actor Malcolm McDowell while both were co-starring in Time After Time. They married and had two children together, including son Charlie McDowell, but the marriage ended in divorce. In 1995, Steenburgen married actor Ted Danson, whom she had met on the set of the film Pontiac Moon, and became the stepmother to Danson's two daughters from his previous marriage to producer Cassandra Coates. Steenburgen resides in the Los Angeles area with her family. An alumna of Hendrix College, she received an honorary doctorate from the institution in 1989. In 2006, Steenburgen received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas. In September 2005, she and Danson gave a guest lecture for students at the Clinton School of Public Service where they discussed their roles in public service as well as the foundations and causes in which they are involved. Steenburgen is a close friend of former senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and supported Clinton's 2008 Presidential campaign along with Danson. She also spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Steenburgen is also an active humanitarian who is involved with various groups ranging from human rights to environmental causes. Filmography Film Television Awards and nominations In addition to these recognitions, Steenburgen received the 1,337th star on Hollywood Walk of Fame on December 16, 2009. References External links * * *Mary Steenburgen: The Gift of Giving }} Category:Actresses from Arkansas Category:Actresses of British descent Category:Actresses of Dutch descent Category:American film actresses Category:American television actresses Category:Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners Category:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:20th-century American actresses Category:21st-century American actresses Category:Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre alumni Category:1953 births Category:Living people Category:People from Newport, Arkansas Category:Hendrix College alumni Category:People from Chilmark, Massachusetts Category:American people of Dutch descent Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:American people of Welsh descent